Quantum mechanics of dissipative systems

Quantum dissipation involves both energy relaxation and decoherence, leading toward quantum thermal equilibrium. There are several theoretical prescriptions of quantum dissipation but none of them is simple enough to be treated exactly in real applications. As a result, formulations in different prescriptions are practically used with different approximation schemes. This review examines both theoretical and application aspects on various perturbative formulations, especially those that are exact up to second-order but nonequivalent in high-order system-bath coupling contributions. Discrimination is made in favor of an unconventional formulation that in a sense combines the merits of both the conventional time-local and memory-kernel prescriptions, where the latter is least favorite in terms of the applicability range of parameters for system-bath coupling, non-Markovian, and temperature. Also highlighted is the importance of correlated driving and disspation effects, not only on the dynamics under strong external field driving, but also in the calculation of field-free correlation and response functions.